The Curse of a Blood Princess…
by T. R. Ghost
Summary: She was found buried in snow and ice, frozen almost to the bone. When she awake, the only thing she could remember was her name, nothing else. But in a world where danger is around every corner and beneath every rock, where death is an ever-present shadowconcealed under a veil of innocence… Who she is, is the least of her problems…
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hi, this is my first story on this site (or any site of that matter), and it's taken me some time to get use to the rules and regulation, but I'm happy to report that I now have it sorted. That being said, one of my readers p.m'd to ask if I could clear up a few things; so I've centralized the parts that are being read (I could also put them in italics if you'd like). I've tried to insert breakers in the chapter to indicate when there's a change in scene or perception... but the format on the editor won't let me. (very sorry about that...)**

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. . . An Open Letter to the Heart . . .

"…Night clawed into the velvet surface of the heavens, soft blue silk torn open to reveal dimly lit stars suspended above a darkened horizon. A laboured smile eased its way onto my lips as I watched day, slowly fizzle into night. I observed in silent wonder, an elegant display of colours; black and blue, purple and pink, grey and red, dance with one another, swirling and spinning as they moved, arm in arm, across the sky... Until finally… it was over, and all that remained was a tattered black curtain draped over the stage above.

"Beautiful," I whispered quietly.

In many ways I still think of that night as the first real moments of my life. Before then, I had no clue as to what life really was. It's a bit unusual really, to imagine, that the most unforgettable event of my existence started, with me, doing something as meaningless as gazing at the stars; something I had done a million times before... To this day, I can still remember everything that happened to me that night. In fact, I remember it in such rich and vivid detail, that sometimes, if I close my eyes to think about it, it feels like I'm right there again, reliving every second of my experience.

I remember a tingling sensation, slowly creep up my arms and down my spine, as cold winds lightly brushed their frozen fingers across my bare skin; the simple dress I wore, did little to offer any protection against the frosty touch. I remember trembling; desperately rubbing exposed flesh in a hopeless attempt to stay warm, all the while silently cursing myself for not choosing to wear warmer clothing.

A strand of hair moved into my line of sight. The thin string forced me to pause and for a moment consider my appearance. I felt dark marks beneath my eyes, even under a layer of heavily applied makeup, making me appear older than I was. My skin felt dry, as if it would crack at the slightest movement. It looked sickly, unnaturally pale, even to me. My normally smooth hair was replaced with fuzzy fur that shot out in all directions – no doubt caused by the wind, but I did nothing to try to fix it. I just sat there, quivering and staring vacantly into the dark.

I'm not sure why, but, in a moment of madness, I inched back and instantly flinched as my skin made contact with cold steel. A low-pitched moan escaped my parted lips as I sank deeper into my seat. It wasn't cold so-much as it was… unexpected. After a while, I remember surrendering; completely giving-in, to the feelings that rippled throughout my body, as little by little, pain from my lower back slowly began to be lulled into a deep, deep sleep. Tightness all throughout my body began to cautiously unwind, fading into the furthest corners of my mind. The stabbing throbs of pain coursing throughout my bruised feet transformed into gentle pulses, emanating from within the confines of my heels. Again I cursed myself, this time for not having the forethought to bring a pair of comfortable shoes… but soon, even that vanished. My shoulders relaxed, my breath steadied and my mind wandered... drifting from memory to memory until there was… nothing, merely an empty void where I simply existed, without thought, care, or awareness. Just floating. It felt like I was lying on a slab of ice, being slowly pulled along the surface of a lake.

Drifting…

It felt weird, sitting there, alone in the middle of an empty park, because everything around me looked different under the cover of night. Brightly coloured grass had turned into a sea of grey, with ripples of wind-formed waves floating periodically along the surface. Trees that had previously been bursting with life during the day looked sickly in the night. What used to be a field filled with the sound of laughter and the joy of children playing was now replaced by a dull hush, an unnatural silence that stole from me my sense of hearing. It was as if night had its hands over my ears, preventing me from hearing its secret conversation with the sleepy city. All I could hear was the rhythmic sound of my own beating heart.

In retrospect, I think I was... tired because time seemed to slow to a crawl; seconds felt like hours, and minutes felt like days. While I'd only been there for a little more than two hours, to me it felt like I'd lived a thousand lives. All while I hung, right at the edge of consciousness, on the borders of slumber. A tiny push in any directions was all I needed to fall into a dreamless sleep. It never came. I remained in an unfocused haze, suspended between the realms of dream and reality, unsure of whether my eyes were open or closed.

That's when it happened. Just as I was about to close my eyes and let go, a faint scent brushed passed my nose, lingering just long enough for the smell to engrave itself into my mind. A fragrance so intoxicating I felt myself drool. There were a mixture of potent aromas; lime and ginger, diesel and grime, mint mixed with a hint of strawberry and something else... something metallic. It was right at the tip of my tong; I could almost taste it in the air.

Then, a small figure emerged from the dark. It staggered forward, almost limping as it moved. Step by step, it inched forward. The closer it came the more difficult it was to for me to make out what it was or what it looked like. It was as if light refused to show the creature's features, parting as it passed and allowing shadows to conceal its form as it moved through the dark. Finally, after wait on the edge of my seat with my heart in my throat, it - no, he! A person - stopped right in front of me. Clad in black with a hood over his face, masking his facial features like clouds over the moon. His head turned and just like that... our eyes met.

The effects were instant. First, my body was assaulted by a multitude of contradicting sensations. I was both, rigid and mellow, calm and agitated, weak and strong. I switched between hot and cold at speeds that left me numb. Then, I lost my sense of being; I couldn't tell whether I was standing or sitting, awake or asleep. I couldn't believe it. My own body turned against me, refusing my silent pleas for it to move. My lips quivered, alternating between open and closed. I tried to speak, but found my mind unable to grasp even the simplest of words. I completely drowned, lost in the depths of liquid pools of bright green. My whole world reduced to a pair of sparking emerald eyes, looking right through me, like they could reach into the depths of my mind. As if they could see into my soul. Eyes that looked like they knew everything I was and hoped to be. For a fleeting moment I couldn't see anything else. Not the structure of his face, the colour of his hair or the shape of his body. All that existed were a pair of picturesque - I blinked.

And just like that it was over.

He was gone...

E. O. C _..."_

Thin sheets of paper slipped quietly through trembling fingers, each falling to the floor one after another, like leaves in the middle of autumn. Soundless, clustering around her feet until only a single blade of white paper was left dangling loosely within her grasp. A soft smile crept along the lines of her lips, slowly spreading to her cheeks before turning into a gentle blush. Her thumbs carefully traced over the page, gently caressing the words that lay beneath.

It was a simple letter. The most primal form of words spelt out on a few crumpled up pieces of paper, not intended to mean anything to anyone other than the writer, and maybe the recipient, but certainly not to her, and yet, somehow as her eyes moved from one word to the next she found herself completely mesmerized. Tangled in a delicate web of words woven together by threads designed to ensnare her senses and render them helpless, unable to defend against the wave of emotion that washed over her heart and left it bare.

She sat motionless, her slender legs dangling over the side of the bed and her hands still loosely clutching onto the last page. Her mind… blank. Void of anything other than a compulsion, an uncontrollable impulse that manifested itself in the form of a desire, a desire to read the page before her eyes over and over and over again. It somehow felt natural, almost as natural as the air that soaked her lungs.

A deep breath escaped her lips, easing away the tension leaning on her shoulders. Hazel eyes lazily wandered south, passed her knees to the hem of her robe, where a piece of white cotton fabric was loosely sticking out. It only served to confirm what she could already feel, the presence of bandages expertly wrapped around various parts of her body. It took noticing the unnatural amount white, decorating the room she was in, coupled with the scent of heavy disinfectants, to correctly deduce her location – a hospital. Although the events that led to her being hospitalized where still a mystery. Even to her.

Every time she closed her eyes or tied to remember, a seething burst of pain would rip through her head like it was trying to spit it in two. Then, she'd hear the sound of the ocean followed by flashes of images. A montage of abstract pictures that were aligned in no comprehendible order; a massive red-leather bound book that was laid in middle of a round table, an image of a glass coffin surrounded by ice, four massive volt doors, and a feather dipped in blue paint. In a pain induced haze, her mind was in too many fragments to decipher the meaning of the four pictures -not that she tried.

She thought back to the first few moments, awakening to a strange new environment, a room to clean to be her own. Discovering that she was trapped; the door locked and her room too high to use the window as a route to escape. How she had earlier, searched the room from top to bottom, looking for personal effects, items that could shed light on the mystery surrounding her hospitalization, or clue to her identity. So far, the only think she could recall was a name, her name, Alexis. Her search had also led her to discover a pile of papers left inside the corner of one of the draws.

From the moment she first laid eyes on the scripts, she was drawn to them, like a moth to an open flame. She lost herself in the maze of words and emerged on the other side, only to discover that she'd spent hours, carefully inspecting the contents of every dirt-stained page. Committing every little detail to memory, from every word in every line on every page, to the curve of each letter, the spacing between words, the tone and yes, even the structure. She had copied every detail and locked it safely between the walls of her mind, where she'd never forget.

"_Miss Devereaux?_" a whisper inquired. It was soft, low, but just enough to lightly chip through the spell and gently nudge the young patient loose from her trance. She flinched in response, her head swayed back and forth with her eyes quickly shifting from left to right in a frantic attempt to locate the source of her disturbance. It didn't take long, within moments her gaze had settled on a bemused-looking older woman, standing a few feet from the door with her arms neatly folded across her chest. "My deepest apologies young miss. I certainly didn't intend to startle you. But judging from the state of this room, I'm guessing you're feeling a lot better." The woman said, calmly gesturing towards the unsightly wreck of paper at the base of the girl's feet.

After her initial shock, Alexis was quick to regain her composure, hiding her embarrassment behind a cautious expression. Carefully studying the nameless stranger behind a feigned calm, trying to determine whether the woman was friend or foe; from the volume of grey in her hair and wrinkles on her face, Alexis put the woman's age at least 60. She was dressed in a suit as dark as her eyes, her hair pulled back into a tight bun, a pair of tinted glassed resting comfortably on the bridge of her nose and a string of snow white pearls wrapped around her neck. If it wasn't for the lab coat draped over her shoulders, the woman might have easily passed as a librarian. As it was, she wasn't.

Noticing the girl's guarded expression the woman slowly uncoiled her arms and eased them innocently into the air, "I apologize for my tardiness, regrettably my attention was momentarily forced elsewhere and to be honest I didn't expect you to be awake so soon." the woman said with bow. "I'm your attending, Doctor Rebecca Granville,"

"Alexis," the girl replied simple.

Doctor Granville chuckled, "Oh, I know who you are Miss Devereaux. A bit surprised that you do though ..." She paused and again glanced down at the white litter, "I believe it would be best to take care of this mess first, wouldn't you agree?"

Alexis blinked, "Sorry I'l-"

"No need, it's the duty of any good doctor to ensure the comfort of their patients." And before Alexis could protest, in two quick strides the doctor was already at her feet gathering the fallen pages. "Besides, you shouldn't be moving around so carelessly in your current condition anyway," she added warmly.

Alexis wasn't sure how to handle the unexpected whale of emotion that threatened to swallow her whole. On one hand, the woman, her doctor, was right. She felt uncomfortable being in her own skin, there were periotic flashes of pain in various parts of her body and bending might have been a task to much. And yet, on the other hand, it felt far worse watching the woman hold her only possessions as if they weren't her own. Each time the doctor obtained a page from the floor; Alexis unconsciously clenched and unclenched her hands into a tight fist until, after a while, her knuckles had turned white. She bit down forcefully onto her teeth to stop herself from lashing out. She could feel blood boil in her veins as the doctor's gaze floated from one piece of paper to the next. And just as she felt herself about to lose control and give in to her newly discovered rage. Doctor Granville arose from the floor with a stack of papers in her hands and placed them carefully on the desk beside the bed.

"There you go, nice and neat, just the way it should be."

Alexis let out a breath she wasn't aware she held, "Thank you," she said through greeted teeth.

"Please, think nothing of it," purred the doctor.

A blunt pulse of pain throbbed from the center of Alexis's temple and for a moment she found herself slightly disorientated. There was something unusual about the way Dr Granville had spoken her last sentence. Even though Alexis had been looking directly at her, she was sure that the sound of the doctor's voice hadn't come from direction that the woman was standing in. Instead, it echoed from all directions, as if being spoken simultaneously, by different people, in different locations around the room.

With a quick shake of her head, she returned her gaze to paper still in her hands and she found it much harder to focus. The words swam from one side of the page to the other, they moved in complex patterns and shapes and rearranged themselves from clear English into a combination of different languages including, but not limited to, Greek, French and… Latin?

"Are you alright there Miss Devereaux? You seem to be in bit of pain."

"I'm fine," the young girl hissed, "Just a light headache. Earlier you said I have a-a… condition. You didn't mention what condition it was? Aside from this headache I feel perfectl-" she almost jumped when she felt the doctor's cold hand brush against her bare leg, "Hey, what are yo-"

"Your feet are still cold," the doctor said simply. "If you don't keep them warm I'm afraid you might catch a cold… or worse." Not waiting for a response she gingerly lifted Alexis's legs and carefully laid them on the bed before covering them with a thick blanket. Than like a mother tucking her child into bed, she pulled the blanket over Alexis's shoulders and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. "I can understand your frustrations Miss Devereaux; I'm sure it's not easy being bed-ridden, but you need only bear with it a little longer. You need to regain your strength and to do so your condition needs to improve at a much faster rate than it currently is. Otherwise, I fear you won't be ready in time…so please… rest just a little longer…" Rebecca uttered. Her voice was barely over a whisper.

Again, an unusual sensation bubbled to the surface as the words left the doctor's mouth. The voice sounded rhythmic almost like it was being song. With the word 'rest' repeated over and over and over again, making Alexis's head spin into a dizzying haze. The melody coursed her vision to blur; the ceiling warped and distorted, taking the shape of an image being reflected off the surface of a carnival trick mirror. The overhead fan looked like it was lying on its side suspended in the mid-air by invisible wire, the bed grew in length, curving left then right before folding in on itself and the room was also effected, it turned different shades of colours, from red to green, then blue to pink before finally settling on a mixture of all four.

As Alexis sank deeper and deeper into her delusion, she could still feel the doctor's heavy breath on her skin, blowing fruit scented air down her face. For a moment she thought she'd receive another kiss, but she didn't. Instead, after she'd inhaled her patient a final time, the doctor quietly withdrew. From a glance, Alexis could vaguely make out the shape of the doctor's shrinking form as it moved out of sight. The moment Dr Granville had vanished from her view, Alexis's strength drained from her body as if it were water in bath tub, and when she was completely empty, the light from her eyes dimmed – leaving the young girl an island surrounded by an ocean of black.

A coy smile spread from the corners of Dr Granville's lips as she slithered out of Alexis's room. A tiny piece of paper stolen, from a patient to disorientated to have felt the doctor's stealthy hands deftly lift the page from her grasp, the cause of Rebecca's wily grin. It was an item she couldn't ignore, one that she simply had to have - for research purposes of course. At least that's what she was planning on saying to anyone that inquired about her… acquisition.

"My… don't _you_, look like the cat that swallowed the canary."

The doctor didn't have to turn her head, or look back to know who the voice belonged to, "I have no idea what you're talking about Robert," she said without stopping, "I'm merely satisfied by the progress my patients are making."

"Oh, how wondrous!" Robert sang dramatically. "I was so disheartened when I was informed of young Alexis's condition. It's a weight of my tender heart to hear that she's making great progress."

Rebecca stopped cold in her tracks, "So is that why you're here, stalking my corridors, to inquire about Miss Devereaux?" she asked over her shoulder.

"Well of course not!" Robert exclaimed. "However, since the topic has been raised, maybe you could shed some light on the awful rumours I've been hearing."

"Rumours?"

"Well naturally, I hear the young girl was found under some rather questionable circumstances, where one may be provoked into assuming the worst, like say… the return of Raven-".

"Nonsense!" Rebecca cut in sharply, "Her injuries are inconsistent with the injuries sustained by the victims of last month's attack-"

"Yes, but in your report you claimed otherwise. If I'm not mistaken you made a note that your findings were inconclusive."

"My report?"

"Oh dear me, have I jumped the gun again? My apologies, but you see while I was wandering these great halls, I got hopelessly lost. I somehow stumbled into your office and the report was right there, on top of your desk. I just couldn't resist."

Dr Granville let out a heavy sigh, "My door was locked and the report you speak of was inside a safe hidden in my desk," she stated calmly.

"Was it? Oh my! Did I forget to mention, how some crook broke into your office and turned it upside down just moments before my arrival?"

Rebecca chucked darkly, "This conversation is getting rather tedious, for both our sake I'd suggest you speak you mind and leave before this encounter turns violent."

Robert was quick to put some distance between himself and the straight-faced doctor, "Like I said earlier, I'm merely hoping you'll shed light on the child's condition."

"Her condition is improving."

"Yes, yes, that's all good and well but I hear she's having trouble recalling certain bits of memory, is it true?"

Doctor Granville swiftly turned on her heels ready to meet Robert with an icy leer, but found his eyes hidden behind a downward-tilted straw hat that left only his mouth exposed to the light.

"Yes," she hissed through gritted teeth, "Alexis is currently suffering from amnesia."

"Amnesia?" the man inquired.

"Yes, the damage done to her memories is quite extensive and unfortunately, not localized around a specific event but rather, seems to be stretched over a period of thirteen years," replied the doctor.

"Thirteen? Are you insinuating that Alexis has a thirteen year gap in her memory?"

"No, it's more complicated than that. Even though the damage goes back thirteen years, there are fragments that still remain in tacked. She can recall things like her name, date of birth, and other bits of information like advanced mathematics, language comprehension, and overall general knowledge but, I'm afraid she has no memories of her un-natural nature. "

Robert drew out a long whistle, "I can see how that could be a problem."

"If that's all, I'd like to be on my way now."

"Oh of course, I just have one more question," he added. "What's that in your hand?" He slyly asked.

Rebecca chuckled, "Oh this," she said dismissively, waving the page in hand, "It's nothing special, you can take it if you want." She handed the page over to Robert and watched in silent amusement as the man's mouth went from a boyish grin to a line as thin as a strand of hair.

"What is this?" He barked in frustration, having failed to make neither heads nor tails of the incoherent jumble of words in front of him.

Trying not to laugh, the doctor gleefully answered, "It's a copy of a diary belonging to one of my patients. They no longer seem to have any interest in it, so I thought I'd throw it away for them."

"Maybe my age is starting to catch up with me, but I don't recall you having a patient with the initials E. O. C. and even if you did, that hardly explains why _you_ of all people would go out of your way to discard it or why I can't seem to understand it?"

"That's because it's written in a language that only the author can decipher," the doctor said slowly. "You can keep-" she paused momentarily when she felt the pager on her belt pulse with a message, she glazed down and was barely able to contain her shock"-or-or return it later." She fumbled.

Robert crunched the piece of paper and threw it into the rubbish bin as he turned to leave, "I have no need for useless drivel." he said over his shoulder.

Taking note of the bin, Rebecca watched Robert sulk away and only when she was sure that the man was gone, did she allow her face to drain of colour. Her eyes read and reread the words on her pager, 'Alexis Devereaux's admission tests are set to commence in 24 hours,' the message read. She quickly typed back her response, 'She's still not ready.' Within seconds the small devise pulsed again, and an envelope icon applied on the corner of the screen. A new message, containing three simple but effective words:

'Then she dies.'

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**It's always good to hear your thoughts, so you can pm or write a review to let me know what you think. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I've gone over this a few times and I hope there aren't too many mistakes, if there are please let me know and I'll add them to the list (I'll try fixing or reword mistakes once every five chapters or so, or every 10 k words, whichever comes first.)**

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. . . What Dreams May Come . . .

Once, twice, and again once more, a pair of orbs the colour of growing grass fluttered open, and closed just as quick, not willing to believe the image before them. An exasperated sigh escaped from the depths of her throat; a broadcast delivered to the body with a simple message, settle. The signal was well received, within seconds her nerves had steadied and her breath had calmed. She felt confident enough to allow her lids to peel open, and instantly her jaw unhinged and sank to the floor, her eyes broadened to the size of saucers, and her limbs went rigid - struck dumb with astonishment and surprise at the sight of her environment. Once again, she stood unbelieving.

An overwhelming sense of wonder washed over her, strange that it was caused by something as simple as standing. Watching. Breathing. Savouring, the sensation of skin as warm light tickled the hairs on her arms and legs, crystal clear sky shimmering like a lake above her head, the golden glow from a globe swimming amidst a vibrant blue, and her flimsy robes blowing carelessly in the wind.

Alexis was almost overwhelmed; she was standing on a mass of rock, partly covered in snow, with tiny stones and solid crystals of ice scraping and digging into the soles of her feet. Not much of the ground was visible from where she was standing; only the area around her. The rest, she suspected, lay concealed below a carpet of fog, which inched towards her in a series of rolls like waves on a beach. It was as if she was standing on top of a mountain, looking down at the clouds, but that couldn't be. She was somewhere inside a hospital – right?

A quick scan of her body provided more questions than answers; she was still covered in cotton and wearing the same thin hospital gown she'd fallen asleep in, but her arms, knees and feet were covered in dirt like she'd been digging at the earth with her bare hands. Her body felt stiff, the muscles around her shoulders and back tightened in disjointed soreness. She could also detect a constant weight on her heart like a hand pushing against her chest, making her a few times heavier than she actually was.

The longer she stood there, the more questions she had. Where was she? Was she really standing on top of a mountain? How had she gotten there? Did she sleep-walk? Was she carried? If so, by whom and where were they? An endless list of queries that came second only to one - was this real?

"Of course not!" A voice thundered, causing Alexis to slip and lose her balance, she barely managed to stop herself form falling off her perch before a girl, no older than she was, appeared completely out of thin air, right in front of her with a frightening crack. Again, without her permission her body jerked back; had it not been for the timely intervention of the mysterious stranger, Alexis would have certainly toppled over. "Geez… you're clumsy," the girl said matter-of-factly.

"It's not my fault. You're the one who scared me!" Alexis shot back, dusting herself off while trying to regain her balance.

"You wouldn't have been so easily scared if you were aware of your surroundings, instead of day dreaming about standing on mountains, dummy," the girl deadpanned.

"What did you call me?" Alexis snarled.

"You heard me. D-U-M-M-Y," the girl spelt out. "Did you want me to call you something else; airhead, simpleton, or maybe just plain stupid? You don't really believe a place like this exists in the world – do you? I mean look at it. Are you honestly so unaware of your environment that you're actually willing to accept that right now, as we speak, you're standing on top of a mountain, really? How could you have possible climbed out of bed, let alone managed to crawl up a mountain in the shape you're in?"

Alexis felt her left eye twitch in frustration. As much as she loathed admitting it, verbally or otherwise, the girl standing in front of her was… right. The more she thought about it, the less sense it made. It made no sense for her to be on a mountain top, much less be able to walk the entire night in a broken body. Then there was the fact that she could actually remembered being in a hospital, she could recall the weird doctor and the sound of singing. After that… nothing, but it being a hospital meant that she couldn't have left without anybody seeing her.

"Could you tone down the attitude and just tell me whe-" Alexis let out a disheartened breath. "You know what - never mind. I'm too tired for this, and honestly, I don't care anymore. Whether I'm on a mountain or not, I just want to get down from here so I can sleep. Could you point me to an exit, or at the very least just tell me how to get down from here?"

The girl stood scratching the side of her head, contemplating the best course of action. After a moment in deep thought she finally spoke. "Sleep," she chuckled softly. "It's cute that you actually believe you can sleep here, but sadly, you can't sleep when you're already unconscious now can you?" She added offhand. She smiled when she noticed the stupefied expressed on Alexis's face, "I'm Alara and this…this is what the inside of your head looks like."

"Say what now…"

"Head? Mind? Noggin? You know…this." Alara said, cheekily tapping her forehead.

Alexis growled, "I know what a head is -"

"Then what's the problem?"

"You mean besides the fact that you're telling me that there's someone else in _my _head or maybe the fact that you expect me to believe that the inside of my head looks like…. this?" Alexis asked slowly. She drew a deep breath in the hopes of taking the edge off her words, "Seriously, do you really expect me to believe that? That _you _and I are inside _my _head and that this is what my mind looks like… an empty landscape? Come on."

"If not your head then where are we?"

Alexis opened her mouth to answer but quickly reconsidered. Even though she didn't know where she was, she was certain it wasn't the inside of her head. A dream – that seemed to made more sense. She could sort of see it, the contrast. Above the colours were vivid and bright, but below they were murky and out of focus, dreams were like that at times. There were parts that were as clear as day, while others were easy to forget; sometimes blurred, distorted or in the background appearing next to objects that were more vibrant.

"It can't be helped, can it? You don't remember much about anything, so it's perfectly understandable for your mind to be a bit, foggy." Alara stated, answering the unasked question. "I'm sure it will all clear up once your memories come back," Alara said evenly. "In the meantime, I'd suggest staying away from that Siren."

An unintelligent grunt was all Alexis could muster in reply. She thoughtlessly agreed with the young girl, not really paying attention to what she was saying. It was all still a bit much for her to absorb, but like Alara had said, if she regained her memories and stayed away from the siren she'd – wait. "Huh?" Alexis backpedalled, "what noise?"

"No, I'm not talking about the acoustic device; I'm talking about a Siren. You know, a sea nymph, supposedly able to lure sailors to their deaths by singing to them?" Alara spoke casually. "Don't you think it's weird, that the last thing you remember just before you felt light headed, and disorientated, is the _sound _of Mrs Creep's voice?"

Alexis could only nod in response, her thoughts already shifting back to Doctor Rebecca Granville's weird dialect and the chants that resonated inside the walls of her mind over and over again. What she didn't realise was that an image of her thoughts was being reflected on the fog below, with bright colours bursting into existence to mirror her emotions.

Blue waves for when she recalled being in a trance like state, reading from her precious pages. A flurry of yellow and red sparks, and a hint of pink, mixed with a warm blush as she remembered the feeling of the final paragraph. Grey and black clouds slowly began to gather as the first of the doctor's words reached her ears; her chaotic state of being, perfectly personified by flashes of lightning raging above. Then a slow calm, as the clouds thinned and vanished into vapour, a symbol of the strength that drained from her body in the final moments.

"What did she do to me?" Alexis whispered. It wasn't a question meant to be answered, but Alara took it upon herself to fill in the blanks accumulating in Alexis's mind. She could literally see them in the distance growing in size.

"She did what Sirens do best, sing. Although technically it's not really singing, it's actually closer to humming. If I remember correctly it's called 'Subsonic Hypnosis'," Alara said rubbing her chin. "From what I remember, Sirens can utilize an extra set of vocal cords to emit a sound wave at a frequency that's well beyond normal human hearing. It's been said that if the tune reaches the ears, the waves have the potential to disrupt normal brain activity or rupture an individual's internal eardrums. It's fascinating… isn't it?"

"B-bu-but…Sirens aren't, they aren't-"

"Real?" Alexis nodded dumbly. "I wish that were true, unfortunately it's not. Sirens are real as me and parts of you, and so are a lot other creatures. In fact, I'd say most if not all of the creatures that your mind now considers being myths or fairy tales, are probably real. As a matter of fact, I'd suggest keeping an open mind from now on. Your naivety might attract unnecessary attention, and we can't afford that, especially with your mother still searching for you."

"Why's my mother looking for me? Doesn't she know where I am?"

"Alexis," Alara started gravelly. "You don't want your mother to find you. You don't want her to know where you are, not when you don't even know what you are, and especially not after what happened the last time the two of were in the same city. No, take it from me, you and Victoria should never be in the same room. Right now the only thing you need to focus on is regaining your memories so you can start looking for whatever it is that you're looking for."

"Excuse me?" Alexis asked quietly.

"Yo-" Alara paused mid-word, her attention momentarily distract by the appearance of a star, directly above her. "You're about to wake up," she said suddenly, not taking her eyes off the dazzling blemish. "There's not much time. You need to listen very carefully to what I'm about to tell you."

Alara's gaze returned to Alexis, and the young girl found herself shifting uncomfortably from one foot to the other, under the weight of Alara's stare.

"A few months ago, without warning, you suddenly collapsed. A week later it happened again, and then it started happening on a regular basis. While trying to find out what was wrong with you, we stumbled across something… I don't know what it was exactly, but you said that it was important to find it before anyone knew you were looking for it. After that, everything's a blur, even to me. What I do know is that whatever place you're in, in the real world… is dangerous. I remember hearing you say that in all likelihood, you'd die in the first few days."

Alexis stood trembling; her heart slammed against her chest like it was trying to break out, her palms turned to leaky taps and her mind was a blaze of activity. She wasn't sure how to feel or act, having been told that her death was an almost certainty. Not only that but that sirens were supposedly real, and she was having a conversation with someone else inside her own head. It was too much information to handle, too many questions for her to ask, and by the looks of things, not enough time.

She could already feel herself slipping; her feet had become transparent, and slowly started to fade. In the distance she could see the world around her start to compress. Shadow spread across the sky like black ink in water. From a side glance, she noticed Alara slip her hand through thin air, ripples forming around her arm as it moved forward. Her fingers grabbed at something seen only to her, before she gently eased her arm back. A yellow sheet of paper, held between two fingers emerged from the liquid surrounding her limb.

"Here," Alara said, gifting the page to the young girl, "try not to lose this one."

Before Alexis could inquire any further, Alara stood back and also started to fade. The fog at her feet started to bubble and boil. Red sparks erupted beneath its foamy coat, shooting into the open blue, and smoothly surfing on the wind. More and more embers filled the sky, each glowed either bright orange or deep red. They moved like fish in water, in perfect synchronicity, forming extraordinary patterns across the sky; spirals in rectangles, circles in squares and all while floating closer to Alexis. They closed in from all angels, blanketing her view in orange and red.

In all the confusion it suddenly dawned on Alexis that she still couldn't explain the presents of other person in her thoughts. "Hey, wait, you still haven't told me what you're doing in my head," Alexis shouted.

A soft laugh echoed from within the swirling clouds, "I live here, dummy."

The sound of muffled groans bounced off four walls, growing in both strength and frequency until the room was alive with whines and moans. Having lain undisturbed, Alexis's slender body slowly started to stir itself awake; twitching then twisting, turning then wiggling, writhing restlessly beneath the weight of white sheets.

It wasn't long before the covers were cast off the bed and left stranded on the floor, exposing sweltering skin to a gentle breeze breathed through an open window. Beads of perspiration were lightly kissed from her neck, and streams of sweat falling down her spin, drunk dry by the night air. Strands of oily hair clung to the cushion supporting her head, while others stroked grimy fingers alone the lines of her face, leaving behind a greasy trail that slithered towards her mouth.

After an ongoing struggle with sleep lasting well over an hour, she won. Her light yellowish-brown eyes fluttered open, and were immediately greeted by an eerie silence. Before her eyes could adjust to the dimly lit room, a tender glow from an object dangling in her left hand caused her to squint. She lazily turned her half open eyes to the radiant hand and saw a blank page slowly fill itself with words:

"…I don't know how long I stayed in that park; hours, days, it might have even been weeks. But, I do remember finally going home, tears freely falling down my cheeks, my heart twisting in agony, and my body trembling... I lie, that's not true... to be honest I felt kind of numb. Even though I wanted to cry, I couldn't force my tears, they refused to fall from the corners of my eyes. Even as I heard the sound of the broken pieces of my heart, rattling inside my chest, I felt… nothing... nothing.

After that night it became apparent that I'd lost all control over my body. I don't remember eating, sleeping, or moving. I'd slip in and out of consciousness; one minute I'd be at home and the next, at that park, sitting on the steel bench. Waiting. Hoping. Wishing. That it would happen again. That I'd see it, that I'd feel it, and drown in it – but nothing happened.

A week turned into a mouth, then two, then... before I knew it, I'd spent over a year revisiting the same place, the same bench, at the same time, over and over again. I thought I was going crazy; at some point I remember briefly catching a reflection of myself in a mirror and almost breaking down in tears – for no reason.

I was at my lowest, beneath rock bottom, crawling in the sewers of depression, and I thought it couldn't get worse... I was wrong. Seventeen months later, to the day, something far worse started to happen... and it was like I'd been given a shovel to dig myself even deeper into my bottomless pit of despair.

Seventeen months after the best thing that's ever happened to me, came the worst.

The dreams…

E. O. C…"

Across the hall, down several flights of stairs and inside a guarded room, a single sheet of crumpled paper retrieved from the bottom of a rubbish bin came alive. Words written in black, vanished, only to be replaced with new text written in ink the colour of blood. The sound of scratching filled the tiny room as a single sentence carved itself into the middle of the page. Pale grey eyes flashed with rage as they read the message – a question;

'Does a siren make a sound, if no one's there to hear it?'


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I'm truly sorry for the careless mistakes that had been in this chapter; if you do spot some mistakes please don't be afraid to let me know. Chapter 4's done just need my magical beta to give me the go ahead to post it. **

* * *

. . . The Second Encounter. . .

It was almost time – just a minute remained. One minute to relax and reflect on what she was planning, not that there was anything to think about, as far as she was concerned she was done with waiting. According to the clock above the door it was almost midday, 11:59 to be exact, and still… nothing. Not a nurse, doctor or stray visitor had come into her room; not even to check if she was still breathing.

55 seconds.

Having been awake for more than seven hours, Alexis had found the time to complete a series of previously neglected chores – well, not really chores. She'd showered; the warm water did wonders for her hair, and her complexion had regained a portion of its natural shine. It also helped to clean out the small scratches and scares still lingering on her skin. In fact, she was fairly certain that the wounds had become smaller after being exposed to the cleansing water.

40 seconds.

She'd changed into a 'new' set of clothes: a pair of jeans, black ankle length boots, a shirt a few sizes too small, a trench coat and a pair of rectangular glasses – which she wasn't sure she needed. They were all articles of clothing that she'd apparently been found in; it made sense considering how well they fit. The discovery of the garments had also yielded a new piece of information, a silver card. It had a picture of her face, full name and a seven digit number on the surface, but she couldn't figure out what it was for. A part of her wanted to throw it away but a bigger part couldn't - it felt important to keep.

25 seconds.

The cramped room that served as her cage was cleaned; the bed was neatly made, old hospital apparel were folded and left in the bathroom laundry basket, and she'd even managed to destroy all the pieces of paper that no longer mattered, which meant all except for one – the new page.

10 seconds.

She stood leaning against the wall, her arms buried into the depths of her coat pockets and her gaze glued to the door, hoping it would open before the stroke of midday. She tried to focus, to ignore the sound of constant tapping as her boot relentlessly knocked on wooden floor. It didn't help that her head was doing the same thing to the wall behind her. She took a quick glance at her left forearm, the only part of her body still wrapped in a bandage. Her thoughts drifting back to the second discovery of the day.

5 seconds.

Her palms started to sweat, her heart felt like a ticking time bomb planning to explode inside her chest. Four seconds, her mind began focus on the task at hand, discarding any last minute thoughts. Three seconds, she turned away from the door and inched forward – almost there. Two seconds, she shivered; a combination of fragile nerves and cool winds, it almost made her reconsider – almost. One. Her heart stopped. She took a final glance at the door, to check if it was opened, before bravely venturing out the open window.

A man the size of a bear stood trembling, uncertain if it was safer to move or remain still. Without thought he started to shift his immense weight nervously from foot to foot. He'd been standing still for almost three hours and even though his feet were numb he wouldn't dare complain – at least not verbally. The fear of death made him unwilling to voice his obvious irritation. Instead, he tried to distract himself from the pain by carefully looking over his environment.

He was standing in the middle of a room, an office so poorly lit that the only sources of light were from the space between the door and the floor, the keyhole, and a few rays of sunlight that managed to squeeze through both the tinted window and black curtains. There were only four pieces of furniture: two shelves along both sides of the office, a large desk void of anything other than a coffee mug, and a chair facing way from the door. On it he could just barely make out the silhouette of a person sitting on the lonesome article of furniture.

"…Robert," the man went rigid at the sound of his name being whispered. Fear had consumed his body in small portions. First his legs, he couldn't feel them and he was too scared to look down – he was perfectly content with being oblivious to what was keeping him up. Then his lungs, at some point he became aware of the fact that he'd stopped breathing. Finally, his voice, words became a distant memory, things easily forgotten under the threat of death. "Are you going to make me repeat myself?" He blinked – apparently fear had engulfed his ears too.

Thinking quickly, Robert was barely able to croak out a reply, "Yes, ma'am. No, ma'am. I – I – m – m – I'm not sure, ma'am, did you say something?" He mumbled unintelligently, stumbling all over his words.

His response was met by an unsettling silence. He felt an invisible hand snake around his throat and lightly tighten. It didn't hurt but its presence was enough to make the hairs on the back of his neck point to the sky like tiny antennae. He swallowed the lump that threatened to form in his throat and silently cursed himself for saying something so profoundly stupid. The figure in the chair stirred and he instinctively braced himself for whatever was about to happen.

With a heavy sigh the voice spoke again, this time with a tone so cold and clear it was impossible not to hear. "Robert," it stressed. "As you can see, I just received new carpets and I'd hate to stain them with blood only a day after they've arrived."

Robert let out a grateful sigh, "Thank you ma'a-" he began, but his pitiful expression of gratitude was quickly cut short.

"Having said that, the sound of your beating heart and constant fidgeting is wearing my patience thin, so if you place any value on your existence, I'd strongly suggest that you state your business, and scurry out of my office before my patience is… completely worn out."

Not waiting to be told twice, Robert quickly flipped through the pages of his clipboard. The lack of light made it harder to locate the page he was looking for but after a moment spent anxiously rifling through the written material, he found it! "At precisely 3:16 am, sensors in the hospital wing detected the activation of an unregistered relic. After the initial investigation, we found Doctor Rebecca Granville frozen solid inside her office," he read.

"How fascinating," the voice said flatly. "However, I fail to see what this has to do with me or why it brought you to my office."

"Yes, ma'am, I was just about to get to that." Robert paused to give himself time to think of the right way to articulate the situation at hand. "Some of the staff was wondering if you could take a look at it and decipher its contents, ma'am."

"Me?" Robert flinched. "Mister Matha, I have no interest in meddling in our petty issues. Get someone from the research department to tinker with it," the voice ordered.

"W-we tried that, ma'am, but the results were the same with both of the members that attempted to decrypt the code. The words presented themselves as a complex jumble of languages, and then when we attempted to forcefully open it, it responded by issuing us a written warning – naturally we ignored it. However, when we tried again, the two members leading the procedure were instant frozen from the inside out."

The chair slightly turned, and Robert found himself being stared down by a single eye peering from behind a veil of dark hair. "Where's this relic now?"

"Right here, ma'am," he jumped, producing the yellow piece of paper from the bottom of the clipboard and placing it in the middle of the empty desk.

The eye turned to the thin sheet, "Do you know where Rebecca obtained this?"

"I don't know, when I questioned her earlier she claimed it belonged to one of her patients, but to the best of my knowledge, I don't recall her having a patient with the initials at the bottom of the page."

"How curious…"

"Ma'am?"

"The level of protection is far beyond the value of the content. Tell the staff that it's nothing to worry about. It's just the delusional ramblings of a love stricken adolescent."

"Yes, ma'am," Robert said with a bow, quietly exiting with his tail between his legs.

When Robert had left, the page came alive. The eye watched as words etched themselves into the blank sheet: 'It's not that simple.'

"How interesting," the voice declared. The figure snapped its bony fingers and watched the sheet burst into flame and turn into ash. "E. O. C. huh? How very interesting…"

The sound of an alarm tore through a veil of silence, a button in the middle of an empty table blinked on and off, monitors pressed against the walls flashed red. A man sitting on the other side of the room jerked awake and pushed his chair across, sliding along a wooden floor. Staring at the crimson monitors he noticed the shape of a girl awkwardly slipping out of an open window. He slowly shook his head and lazily pressed a finger to the blinking button. "We have another one on the 8th floor, roo-"

"Are you sure?"

"I'm looking right at her…"

"Weird… that floor wasn't been used in 30 years."

Alexis kept to the wall, easing herself to the left one foot at a time – her eyes never once looking down. As best she could, she tried to keep her view centered on her next step and nothing more. Her arms were extended on either side of her like wings on a plane; both firmly gripping onto exposed brick and searching for any cracks that her fingers could squeeze themselves into. She was looking for the long tube that delivered water from the roof to the ground; most buildings had one somewhere on the side, normally made of metal or plastic.

After taking four very measured steps, she stopped. There was no more room; she was right at the edge of a left turn. She inched closer, aligning her shoulder with the corner, and gingerly tried to take a quick glance around it. She saw it! A maroon coloured metal pipe headed straight down. It was only a few feet from her, but it might as well have been a mile.

She slammed her head repeatedly against the wall behind her, her teeth clenched and eyes tightly shut, silently chanting words of encouragement: 'Come on, come on, come on!', 'you can do it', 'just grit your teeth and go for it', 'you can do it!' When she'd collected a few more tokens of courage, she swiftly took another look and noticed that the ledge leading towards her salvation was narrowed – more so than the one she was standing on.

"You've got to be kidding me," she growled.

There was no way down, plain and simple. Not only was the pipe too far to reach, but the path was too narrow to tread on. Add to that the nerves that were slowly starting to creep in and the escape seemed a daunting task. Why was she even out here? The hospital room may have been a pretty cage but it was still safe. Then she remembered – Sirens. That's the reason she was so desperate to escape. Fear that if she didn't, she'd be lulled into a premature grave. She turned her head to the right wondering whether or not it was too later to turn back. Death by song seemed better than death by falling.

"You're over thinking this," a familiar voice whispered.

Alexis's head snapped back at an almost inhuman speed, she almost lost her grip. "Dammit, Alara, stop scaring me!" she shouted. The girl in question only blinked in response. Taking a closer look at Alara, Alexis almost lashed out again. She was standing casually against the wall, her arms folded and her attention fixed on the ground – a place Alexis refused to be drawn to. What really annoyed Alexis was the bored expression on Alara's face.

"Sorry," Alara said unapologetically, "but watching you waddle across this ledge was painful. I thought I'd pop in and give you a bit of a 'nudge' in the right direction," she added coyly.

"What do you mean nudg-" before she could finish her thought she felt Alara's foot on her hip and her eyes widened in a panic. "No! Don-" the words never really left her mouth. One second she was staring at Alara and the next she was staring at clouds. She watched the ledge retreat, shrinking in size while in contrast the sky grew wider - darker. Her gradual decline appeared to be in slow motion; the speed of her hands as they flailed, helplessly trying to grasp at thin air, her hair as it flew forward, and the sound of her beating heart – it was all so slow.

The only thought to pass the space between her ears was a single word – falling. It didn't even register that she was going to die, that she was going to smash into the ground and shatter into a thousand pieces. No, all she could think about was the fact that she was falling… odd that it didn't even feel like falling, it felt more like she was sinking; as if the air had turned to water and her, a pebble, descending towards the depths of an early grave. The finality of the situation she was in, never fully processed because before she could she was pulled under a black wave.

'An out of body experience,' the best words she could think of to describe what it felt like. It was as if she was looking down at her body; watching it drift aimlessly in a vacuum. No sound. No scent. No light. Nothing existed, nothing but the colour black. It stretched from east to west, north to south, devouring anything and everything.

Was this it? Was this all she was going to get, an empty void? No highlight reel comprised of images that showed the life she'd lived, no sound of music playing off to the great unknown, not even a bright light for her to go into?

"That's because you're not dead, dummy."

'Not' and 'dead', 'not' and 'dead', 'not' and 'dead', the only two words Alexis could hear. They rattle inside the box of her mind like a pair of die. It was all she could do to contain the child like grin that leapt from her face. She was alive! As her eyes snapped open the proof was staring right at her; the window that she'd crawled out from was frowning down at her, almost scolding her for escaping. She was so happy to be alive that she willingly overlooked Alara's insult.

It wasn't the only thing to go unnoticed, in all her excitement, Alexis failed to realize that she hovered a few inches above the ground in the middle of a sizable crater. She levitated for only a few short seconds before gentle landing on something soft. Dust and dirt gathered at the base of the opening and the hole was slowly filled – all of which went completely unnoticed.

"You tried to kill me," Alexis said in disbelief.

"Don't be so silly, you'd be dead if that were true," Alara responded. "Besides, if I really wanted to kill you, then I wouldn't have caught you." Alexis blinked. It was then that she realized that she had somehow managed to get herself on top of Alara.

She shot up. "Sorry," she apologized, scrambling quickly to her feet.

Alara didn't acknowledge Alexis's apology. "You should probably be headed in that direction," she pointed.

Alexis trailed the extended hand and couldn't believe what was at the end of the slender finger, a castle. The walls were a creamy white, with different shades of grey stone slabs used at the base, there were several towers protruding from its back, dozens of stained glass windows decorated the sides of each visible wall and the dark roof complemented the pale structure perfectly. Even from a far it was easily the most physically imposing structure she'd ever seen. It stood tall, proud, towering above a forest of trees like a mountain standing on a cloud of leaves. Its sheer size was enough to make her knees buckle.

"Are you crazy? I'm not going in there!"

"If not there, then where?" Just as Alexis was about to answer she was interrupted. "You have no memories. That means you have no knowledge of friends, of family, of anything. The only thing you can do right now, is find…it! Do you understand me? There's nothing more important tha-"

"You keep saying that as if you know what I'm supposed to be looking for, but you don't. Meanwhile, I'm that one that has to deal with Sirens and Victorias and being kicked off ledges and whatever else is out here while you have the luxury of 'popping in'!"

"Three," Alara abruptly said.

"What?"

"Three," she repeated, "the number of seconds you'd survive if you tried to leave these grounds."

Alexis felt the blood thin in her veins, the darkness in Alara's eyes as she spoke made Alexis shudder unintentionally. She could tell just by looking at Alara that she was serious. With a defeated sign she asked a question that she was sure she'd regret, "What's in that building anyway?"

"To be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure. I was just pointing towards the general direction of where I could sense our things."

"Things? What things?"

"Relics, they're the only things we own that give off residual energy."

"Well, of course! Relics. Energy. Why didn't I think of that?" Alexis grumbled. She didn't wait for an explanation. She just turned and walked away. There were still a few questions that she wanted to ask but Alara's attitude wasn't worth the hassle. As she stomped off Alara noticed a yellow flash from Alexis's right coat pocket.

Alexis had been traveling for a few minutes when she began to notice the sudden appearance of several 'smaller' building on either side of her. They materialized in swirls colour as if they were only now being constructed. It felt as if she was walking in the middle of an unfinished picture, while the artist was still painting. Trees made way for brick and stone, and a winding dirt road became a flight of steps leading towards the looming tower. It all happened right in front of her, but by the time could fully realize what was happening she was already standing next to a giant wooden door.

Unsure of what to expect, she nervously pushed them open and ventured into the unknown; as soon as she breached the threshold it was like entering a different world. The room was the size of two small houses, marble tiles covered the floor and large stone pillars flanked either side of the space with portraits of old men and women decorating golden walls. Above, an almost exact replica of the Sistine Chapel was painted on the ceiling. Light poured from all corners of the room, the main source being a crystal chandelier gleaming directly above the center of the room.

With all the space available, it was no surprise that people were scattered all over the place; some were even leaning against the wall, others were gathered together in groups in the middle of floor and a few were nervously standing alone. On the other side of the room, she noticed two women dressed in matching uniforms manning the front desk; one was franticly typing away on a computer, while the other was on the phone and scribbling down a never ending steam of notes – neither one of them paying any attention to the growing audience gathering around them.

Despite the tense atmosphere, Alexis continued on, slowly making her way across the room. She found herself forced to smile or slightly nod in acknowledgement of the people that greeted her. Those that didn't were either too busy to notice her or were engaged in heavy conversations but a few - mainly the boys - looked up to get an eye full as she drifted passed, some even going as far as to point as she cautiously weaved her way through the crowd.

The woman typing was the first to notice Alexis approach, followed shortly by the one on the phone. Both women were remarkably similar, both in their late twenties, sporting the same shoulder length hair and the same facial features. The only noticeable difference was the simple fact that while the lady on the phone had on glasses, the other didn't.

"State your name and identification number," the glass-wearing woman declared impatiently.

Alexis stuttered, unsure of what would happen if she gave her full name – she was still on the run. To give herself time to collect her thoughts she repeated the statement as a question. The annoyance of the brunette was obvious from the deep breath she drew. "Your name and identification number, you do have one – right?" She asked slowly, trying to show a half smile – a vain attempt to appear hospitable.

She didn't make a conscious decision to say her name; it just came out, "Alexis Devereaux."

The reaction to her name wasn't what Alexis had expected. For starters, both of the women in front of her instantly jumped to their feet, bowed their heads and started chanting their apologies. The crowd that had gathered around the front desk dispersed, leaving her alone with the two brunettes. She could feel the eyes of everyone around focused solely on her. When she attempted to make eye contact she noticed that not one person could or wanted to look her directly in the eye. They averted their gaze or hid behind larger people, but as diverse as their reactions were, their expressions weren't; they were all the same, appearing in various degrees - terror.


	4. Chapter 4

. . . Greek Gallery. . .

Whoever said 'a lot can happen in five minutes' was obviously mistaken, that or they were extremely motivated individuals because from what Daphne could gather, there wasn't an awful lot a person could do in three hundred seconds. In the five minutes that followed the revelation of Alexis's name, the entire lobby had been transformed into a librarian's dream. Forget being able to hear a pin drop, from the absence of sound, the young receptionist was confident that if necessary, she'd be able to hear a grain of sand hit the marble floor without so much as batting an eye.

A truly unsettling silence, but as unnerving as it was, perhaps even more frightening was the second phenomenon caused by the young girl's utterance – an overwhelming sense of terror. It was as if her name was an alarm and the instant it went off it created an immeasurable fear of danger. It was like standing on a beach, watching an approaching tsunami, and knowing that no matter what she did, no matter where she ran, the wave would always find her. In that same regard, being in Alexis's presence was belittling; Daphne could feel herself become smaller as if a boulder had been placed onto her shoulders, and she wasn't the only one. The entire room may as well have been a museum showcase, because everyone within the scope of her vision was giving their best Greek statue impersonations.

Thankfully, Alexis wasn't interested in any of them or Daphne feared a few might crumble into dust from the weight of prolonged eye contact. Unfortunately, not being interested in her surroundings meant that most of Alexis's attention was fixed squarely her and her sister. On any other day it wouldn't have been so bad, but Daphne and her sister, Dawn, had been manning the front desk since the earliest hours of day and they were simply exhausted. In that span of time they'd seen and heard and dealt with just about anything and everything the world had to offer; from overeager to nervous, civil to snobbish, charming to creepy, and of course the rich that demanded special treatment - but all paled in comparison to the arrival of _the _Alexis Devereaux.

For the most part, there wasn't anything physically special about Alexis; she was of average height, her hair was fairly messy, her clothes weren't stylish, she looked very normal and overall didn't really leave that much of an impression. But the effect her name had was undeniable.

Alexis was at a loss – not only did she not know what to do but she also couldn't think of anything to say. Not one person looked like they had any interest in helping her – even the two women in front of her, who she assumed to be receptionists, stood at attention like soldiers ready to be given orders or sculptures made of ice. The only problem being… that Alexis had no idea what to say to thaw them out. She'd already tried to wave off their repeated apologies, but the two women went rigid the moment she waved her hands in front of them.

After waiting for over five minutes, Alexis finally had enough. "Would someone please relax?" She breathed half-heartedly, adding a slight shrug in a vain attempt to ease her building frustration. Her appeal didn't work as well as she would have liked it to, but it did have some effect, at least on the two women in front of her, both of whom let out heavy sighs and simultaneously flopped to their seats like lifeless rags – while the rest of the room remained stuck.

It took a few counts to ten for the two women to be composed enough to speak, and when they were, only the glass-wearing brunette was brave enough to open her mouth. "How may I –we, be of assistance to you, ma'am?" She spoke softly, unable to hide the tremble in her voice or the fear in her eyes.

Ignoring the look of horror, Alexis tried to focus on the construction of her question. She wasn't sure how to best phrase her enquiry, it sounded absurd even as a thought – expressing it verbally seemed certain to raise a few heads. "Ah… hmm… well… ah… mmm… I sensed my things were somewhere in this building? … And… was wondering if you could help me find them?" She choked out.

It appeared to be the right thing to say, because after exchanging a few nervous side-glances both women exploded into action. On one side of the desk, the glass-wearing woman began happily typing away on her computer at breakneck speed; she looked like she enjoyed being given something to do. On the other side, the same couldn't be said about her twin, who was having a heated discussion with someone on the phone – whatever was being said was not making her happy. Even though she had a hand over her mouth in an effort to contain the reach of her voice, she couldn't hide the obvious anxious ticks; the nervous glances to the side, the constant chewing of her bottom lip and the rhythmic tapping of her foot against the floor.

A light cough brought Alexis's attention back to the women working on the computer. "Miss Devereaux," the women started tentatively, her eyes unwilling to be moved from the screen in front of her. "Your luggage arrived safely nine days ago, at exactly 05: 24 AM. As per your request, your clothes were cleaned, ironed and hung in your closet and your room maintained in your absence. The list you submitted was checked, twice, all the items were accounted for except for one – a pair of glasses." She paused to take the faintest of looks in Alexis's direction, when the young girl failed to challenge the unavailability of her glasses the woman took it as a sign to move on. "It looks like the current location of your belongings is room A13. If I could also add, an updated version of the list will be made available to you upon the completion of your admission tests – which to my understanding have been scheduled for approximately midnight, tonight. As a side note, should any item be damaged or unaccounted for, you can bring your complaint to either me or my sister." She said pointing to the girl sitting to her right. "In the meantime, I've contacted someone to escort you to your room."

A few thoughts raced through her mind at the time, each raising their own questions as they sped past. The first was easy to conceive; why did she have a room full of her belongings in castle of all places? She'd been expecting a travel bag, a box filled with old junk, or even something she'd be able to take and leave with, not a room to stay in.

Her having a room inevitably brought up another enquiry – Was it due to the proximity to the hospital? If so, how serious was her condition? Both Alara and Doctor Granville had hinted at something serious but neither had gone into too much detail. She'd been forced to guess and deduce a lot of what she knew because no one would give her a straight answer.

Next was the magical element, which she just didn't want to think about. As best she could, she tried to take each new event in stride and to not get caught up in the wonder. It was a lot to ask, but Alara had warned against her naivety and Alexis didn't want to attract any attention. Her only real concern was trying to figure out how to safely escape; something she was already slowly starting to formulate a basic plan for.

The final wandering thought was a question she wanted to be answered first – where on earth was she? It was pretty obvious that it wasn't just a hospital because she was already there and as far as she knew one didn't need to take admission tests for a hospital – especially in the middle of the night. So where was she?

Looking at the trembling twins, it didn't seem like the time to ask those sort of questions, so she buried them somewhere safe, hoping to get the chance to dig up the answers before it was too – "That's acceptable," she suddenly blurted. Her mouth had moved on its own and slammed shut quickly after, refusing to allow her the opportunity to take back her words.

"I'm afraid it won't be that simple," Dawn piped in, turning the heads of both Alexis and her sister. "Miss Devereaux isn't medically cleared to be on the grid."

"Then how'd she make it out of the hospital?"

"The entire medical department is still dealing with this morning's security threat and as a result several members of our security force are preoccupied – we were already stretched thin as it is following last month's… incident. Honestly, I'm surprised we haven't had more walk-ins," Dawn huffed.

"Dawn," her sister whispered. "Can't you just call someone to authorize her temporary access?"

"Sorry, but I can't! Doctors Granville, Carson and Piers are all unavailable and one of those Doctors is Miss Devereaux's attending," Dawn explained. She stole a peek at Alexis before adding, "I'm sorry Miss Devereaux but I can't reach your doctor or anyone in a position to clear you and unfortunately you can't use the facilities without first being medica-"

"Lexie!" A girl yelled.

Before she could react Alexis was tackled to the ground. "Miss Rivera!" She heard Dawn bark. "Get your hands off Miss Devereaux right now!" Instead of loosening her grip, the girl squeezed tighter and Alexis found herself pinned closer to the floor.

"You need to listen to me," Rivera whispered quickly. "You're in danger; the longer you stay here, the harder it will be for you to save yourself."

"Wha-"

"Keep your voice down!" She hissed. "The walls have ears! For now, I just need you to relax."

"Relax?"

"Yes, look all around you, these people can't move because of you!"

For the first time since saying her name, Alexis took a closer look at the people instead of the room. Aside from the two receptionists no one else had moved an inch, which was strange because some of the people were contorted in unnatural positions – seemingly in the process of bending or twisting their bodies in an effort to avert their eyes from her gaze. It didn't look like they'd paused on purpose, instead it was as if they had been left out in the cold to freeze. A closer inspection and she noticed that some of the older people's hands were only now slowly starting to twitch. "Wait… am I the one doing this?"

"Yes," Rivera answered simply. "Your emotions are causing you to exert an enormous amount of energy and it's pushing down on the rest of the room. If you don't stop and relax now, you'll completely tire yourself out."

"Roxanne! If you don't get your hands off Miss Devereaux I'll be forced to call the v-"

"No need for that!" The girl called, shooting up from the floor. "Lexie and I go waaaay back. In fact I'm her official tour guide, speaking of which we really need to get going – it's been fun."

"Wait a minute! She isn't medically cleared to use her room yet!"

"It's fine, she'll stay in mine till morning," Roxanne answered over her shoulder. It took a minute for Alexis to realize that she had been absentmindedly following the blond-haired girl; her feet had moved and were moving on their own. Her mouth had once again slammed shut so she couldn't argue or challenge the developing events. "You might want to hold on a little tighter," Roxanne whispered.

Alexis blinked, her right hand was clutching at Roxanne's shirt but, before she could let go Roxanne pulled out a card from her pocket and breathed words Alexis couldn't understand. Roxanne's whispered chain of unintelligible words was finally broken by the abrupt utterance of the last two, 'Room 51.'

Almost instantly the thin rectangular piece of plastic started to glow bright gold. Alexis noticed the surrounding area warp and gradually start to change. Paint from the walls and ceiling peeled off revealing a flat coat of white beneath. The outer layer of paint gathering on the floor turned acidic and slowly started to dissolve the marble tiles. The crystal chandelier was sucked into the ceiling as the overhead surface dropped, what little of the walls that remained visible advanced closer together. People began to fade one by one as they were submerged behind the moving walls of white until it reached the two twins, who stole a final glance at Alexis before they too became nothing more than the background.

When everything had turned white, a pulse of colour rippled out from Roxanne's card. The wave washed over the white and uncovered a new environment – one that was smaller in both size and glamour. The new walls were blue with shades of grey around the window, the floor was tiled but not to the same level of style as the lobby, the pillars were replaced with a sink, a wash basin and racks lined with towels and instead of paintings of old men and women there were mirrors and a single abstract painting of colours. "Take off your coat and get in," Roxanne commanded.

Alexis blinked and stared at where she was being instructed to enter – a bathtub. Her face twisted in disgust at what was inside it; a thick creamy-like substance the colour of slime. "I'm not getting into that!" She said defiantly and a little surprised that her voice was co-operating.

Roxanne didn't seem too bothered; if anything she seemed a bit amused. "Why do you always have to doubt my potions? Just because I can't make them look good doesn't mean they don't work. Now get in before I change my mind."

"Potion? Seriously? Now I'm definitely not getting in that!" Alexis growled, adding as much distance as she could between herself and the strange girl.

Roxanne frowned in response, "You're not? And I suppose you have another way of regaining the energy you just blew on that little stunt you pulled down stairs?" Alexis didn't answer. "Didn't think so – now get in." she said taking a step forward.

"Stay away from me!" Alexis screamed. Glass around the tiny space cracked causing Roxanne to backpedal.

"Okay, then," she said calmly. She slowly sat herself on the edge of the liquid container, "You don't have to do anything you don't want to; we can just sit here and talk." Alexis was quick to cover her ears. "What are you doing?" Roxanne asked, slightly tilting her head.

"I'm not letting you put me to sleep!"

"What are talking about?"

Alexis somewhat relaxed the pressure on her ears, "You're a… a Siren, aren't you?"

"What? No, I'm not a Siren," Roxanne giggled. "I'm a Witch. Geez… what's wrong with you?"

Witch… Whether it was her nerves or finally accepting the reality of her new world; the existence of witches and sirens, conversations with strangers inside her head or being transported from one place to another in matter of seconds – whatever it was, caused Alexis to collapse on the floor with her hands over her head and tears freely falling from her face. "What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you? This place? These people? First it's Sirens and now Witches! What next?" She asked desperately.

In the midst of her breakdown, she felt Roxanne's hands warmly slide over hers. "Lexie, relax, I'm right here… it's okay. I'm here to help… but I can't do that if I don't know what's wrong… please. Talk to me…" Roxanne cooed softly. Her voice was gentle, calm but above all else, familiar.

"I don't remember." Alexis said quietly. The sentence comprised of three simple words but hung in the air like a complex equation or question, waiting for either one of the two girls to solve or find its hidden answer. "I don't remember anything. I don't know who I am. I don't know what I am. I don't even know what I'm doing here," she muttered between breaths.

An uncomfortable calm settled around the two, neither one willing to make the first move. Both Alexis and Roxanne seemed unaffected by the lack of sound. The tense silence was finally broken by the sound of soft laughter. Alexis peered out from between the spaces of her fingers and frowned at the sight of Roxanne kneeling in front of her with a hand over her mouth, trying and failing miserably to stifle the sound of her light chuckles. Alexis glared daggers at the girl, "It's not funny."

"It's also not that big of a deal," the blonde offered warmly. "Besides, you don't really need memories when you've got me, now do you?"

"Huh?"

Another chuckled bubbled over, "Allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is Roxanne Jade Rivera, a servant of the 'House of Blue Snow', but please don't hesitate to call me Roxie – knowing you, you probably won't," she said with a smile. "We officially met a year ago on my 16th birthday; we've been friends ever sense – you even gave me permission to call you Lexie," she added warmly.

Alexis stared back at Roxanne, "How do I know you're telling the truth?"

"Because you followed me, even though you didn't remember me – deep down you believed in me enough to follow without thought. Some part of you trusts me and it's that part that I'm reaching out to…" she said gently. "My brewing might not be the most glamorous but it's certainly one of the most effective, trust me, this potion might look suspect but it won't harm you, I swear. I was going to use it myself but was summoned to the front desk before I got the chance. Looking at you now I'm glad I didn't because it takes a lot of time to make and you need it more than I do." She extended her hand, "so please, if there's any part you that recognise me in any way… please, let me help…"

A woman dressed in all black gingerly stepped over sleeping bodies. On her head was a pointed hat that drowned her face in black, her hands were folded neatly behind her back as she slid across the marble floors. She took mental notes of the scene before her; several people of varying ages lay scattered across the floor, many of whom were already being taken care of by men and women dressed in white coats. A few observers and onlookers stood in the background with clipboards in hand, scribbling down things they found interesting. She arrived at the front desk to the sight of two half-conscious twins, twitching uncontrollably. "What happened here?"

A nurse on the other side of the desk inspecting the two women looked up. "We're not exactly sure," she answered.

"What do you mean you're not sure?"

"Well, we know that someone unauthorised was here. Judging from the number of affected we're certain it was someone strong, but we can't identify who or what they were as no one seems to be able to remember what the intruder looked like. We know it was a woman because… well you know, but we can't determine anything else. These two," the nurse said gesturing towards the dazed twins, "weren't very helpful. The last thing either one of them remembers is a pair of glowing green eyes."


End file.
